Why people buy food directly from farmers: Case study from Moldova

Dumitru-Claudiu Sănduță

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Moldova faces big shifts in the traditional way of doing groceries, less and less people visit farmers’ markets as supermarkets with cheaper products became more popular, leaving national small farmers in difficult position. This trend is particularly pronounced among younger generation who exhibit low interest in traditional markets and have higher interest for online grocery delivery or already prepared food delivery. In context of a new progressive world of high technologies, where trends can easily shift it is important to understand the factors, attitudes and intention of these consumers to be able to support small producers and local farmers. Studies which investigate factors affecting buying intentions from farmers’ markets provide us with a multitude of variables and evidences about their magnitude in the consumers buying behaviour. However, few of them have integrated the Theory of Planned Behaviour and researched how its main concepts affect buying intentions, moreover this topic remains unstudied in Republic of Moldova. Hence this study analyses how attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control influence the Moldovan consumers intention to buy from farmers’ markets and which are the specific underling factors. Data was collected in the capital city of Moldova, Chișinău, at one of the most popular farmer markets, Central Market, and also at other smaller farmers’ markets, local markets and supermarkets, from 3 July 2023 to 31 August 2023, during which time in-person pen and paper interviews were performed and received 150 responses. In this study we also employed purposive and quota sampling with an 80/20 female to male ratio. The data was analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics 29.0.0 mainly used for descriptive statistics and SmartPLS 4 software to test and verify the hypotheses. To verify the hypotheses Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model (PLS-SEM) and the TPB framework was employed to build the structural models and analyse how well factors reflect each concept of TPB and consequently how these concepts affect buying intention. The model was tested for reliability and validity using Cronbach's alpha coefficient, average variance extracted (AVE), composite reliability, Fornell-Larcker discriminant validity criterion and heterotrait-monotrait ratio, tested for multicollinearity using variance inflation factor (VIF) statistics and overall model fit. The result of model estimation confirmed that attitudes influence buying intention, social norms also have an influence on intention to buy, and not the least, perceived behavioural control was also shown to have an influence on intention to buy from farmers’ markets.

Keywords

Theory of Planned Behaviour, farmers' markets, Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Model, consumer intention

Jazyk práce: English

Datum vytvoření / odevzdání či podání práce: 28. 4. 2024

Obhajoba závěrečné práce

• Obhajoba proběhla 4. 6. 2024
• Vedúci: doc. Ing. Miroslava Bavorová, Ph.D.
• Oponent: Andrea Pieroni, externi

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme:
International Development and Agricultural Economics